Sir Michael Wilshaw calls for Birmingham LGBT rights lessons to be reinstated

Former chief inspector of schools Sir Michael Wilshaw has called for LGBT rights lessons to be reinstated, despite parents' protests.

The No Outsiders programme at five Birmingham schools stopped when parents said it was age-inappropriate and incompatible with Islam.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4, Sir Michael said:

"These people, that have these very conservative views sincerely held, have also got to accept that they are living in this country with the values that this country holds.

"They can't break the law and the law says people should be treated equally.

"We live in a very diverse society, in a society which respects people no matter what their faith, no matter what their ways of life and children need to know that that they need to balance those two issues.

"And if the parents are not teaching them to balance those two issues, then schools need to."

Sir Michael said it was critical schools communicated with parents:

"They have got to take these parents with them, so, the question needs to be, 'have they consulted enough, have they communicated well enough?'"